Family Law (United States)
As a family law (Engl. Family law ) is called the law of the United States , a jurisdiction that governs the legal status of, persons connected by marriage partnership, family and relatives. US family law, like all civil law, is not regulated at the federal level, but at the state level. Almost no state has codified family law, but there are numerous model laws; it is also largely common law .
marriage
Before the marriage was established, the engaged couple had few rights and duties. In breaking the promise to marry, can by tort law on damages (monetary damages ~) be sued. Punitive damages are possible. Furthermore, gifts given on condition of marriage (e.g. engagement ring) can be reclaimed prior to the wedding. The parties can enter into antenuptial or premarital agreements (~ pre-marital agreements) before the marriage . Numerous states have adopted the Uniform Premarital Agreements Act (UPAA), a model law.
In the area of marriage, some states still distinguish between ceremonial marriage and common law marriage . This can be concluded without a formal wedding ceremony simply by the fact that the parties agree to get married, live together and present themselves in public as man and woman. Other states recognize a closed common law marriage , even if they themselves do not recognize this in their legal system.
After entering into the marriage, the spouses generally remain the owners of the title (formal position comparable to ownership) of all objects of their property. Only in the event of a divorce can other interests of the spouse prevent the exercise of the title on the objects. If a third person disturbs the marriage, the other spouse can file two lawsuits as tort : alienation of affection and criminal conversion .
divorce
Reasons for divorce
Most states now allow divorce without fault (no fault divorce) . Divorce can be applied for solely on the basis of irreconcilable differences or incompatibility after a period of separation has expired. When fault divorce adultery in most states the following grounds for divorce exist (adultery), willful abandonment (wilfull desertion), extreme physical or psychological violence, voluntary drug addiction or alcoholism and mental illness.
There are no defenses against a no fault divorce . Only the calculation of the separation time starts again when the spouses have reconciled in the meantime (reconciliation). The following defenses exist against a fault divorce :
- collusion: the spouses only feign the reason for the divorce;
- connivance: the other spouse has consented to the conduct leading to the divorce;
- condemnation: the other spouse forgave with full knowledge of the reason for the divorce and the spouses subsequently had marital intercourse;
- recrimination: the other spouse is guilty of a marital misdemeanor himself.
Entertains
The maintenance payments after divorce can be divided into four categories: permanent (for life), rehabilitative (for a period of time), lump sum (one-off payment) and reimbursement (one-off compensation for participation in costs, not value, of the vocational training of the other spouse).
Asset compensation in the event of divorce
There are three fundamentally different approaches to asset equalization in divorce in the various states:
- community property (e.g. in Louisiana ): Any property acquired during the marriage belongs equally to both spouses.
- equitable division of all property: The entire property of each of the two spouses is distributed equitable (just, not: equal, i.e. in equal parts).
- equitable division of marital property: Each of the two spouses retains its separate property, the property marital however, does justice (equal) distributed between the spouses.
The distinction between marital and separate property is crucial for the division in most states . In principle , what the spouse acquired before the marriage is considered a separate property ; as marital property, which was acquired during the marriage with the exception of gifts (gift), bequests (comfortably), gifts due to death (devise) or inheritance (descent). Once the court has determined which assets are separate or marital property , it carries out the equitable division (~ fair distribution) on the basis of criteria such as age, upbringing and standard of living of the spouses, duration of the marriage, health status of the spouses or the custody of minor children .
care
In custody disputes, the jurisdiction of the courts of a state is often one of the most important starting points. According to the Uniform Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) , the child's home state is the primary point of contact. This is where the parent lived for at least 6 consecutive months or the state that was the child's home state within the last six months, if the child itself no longer lives there, but one parent continues to live there State lives.
Once a state has acquired jurisdiction over a custody case, it retains it. The jurisdiction ends when either the child no longer live a parent in the respective State or the child no significant connection (significant connection) has more to the state and also no evidence there (evidence) is more.
Parental Care and Adoption
Parental custody includes, on the one hand, legal custody and, on the other hand, physical custody. The former means the influence on the determining life decisions of the child, the latter the determination of the child's physical stay. Joint custody (joint custody) may refer to each of the two aspects. There is a model law adopted by many states for parental custody, the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA).
Adoption can cause a child to lose legal ties with their biological parents. The legal bond with the adoptive parents then replaces the legal bond with the biological parents. Although there is a model law for adoption, the Uniform Adoption Act , most states have not adopted it. Rather, they have placed adoption under the UCCJEA. A model law, the Uniform Parentage Act , was again created in order to master newly emerging problems of third party parenting, especially with artificial insemination techniques .